LOGLINE:
An undocumented food-delivery rider scraping by to support her family is pulled into an underground network of deliveristas who reclaim stolen bikes, until a chase puts her on a collision course with someone she can’t afford to lose.

SYNOPSIS:
Back in Venezuela, Pilar was a rising BMX racer. Now in Corona, Queens, she is barely surviving as a food delivery rider, grinding under an unforgiving app to send money home for her mother’s care while her brother Simón spirals after an injury leaves him unable to work.

Late one night, an order turns into a trap when thieves chase Pilar for her e-bike. ut of options, she calls for help and is rescued by a clandestine network of deliveristas who recover stolen bikes before the loss costs their owners their livelihoods, or worse.

Their leader, Moisés, sees Pilar’s discipline and edge immediately. He asks her to join them, but Pilar refuses. She cannot afford the risk; not with thieves, police, and ICE around every corner.

As her situation deteriorates, desperation pushes Pilar toward the very world she tried to avoid. Breaking Moisés’ number one rule, she chases a bike thief alone, until the pursuit forces her into an impossible choice between survival and family.

App-based delivery work has reshaped cities around the world, creating a new class of workers moving through urban life; essential and unseen.

LA DELIVERISTA is a Spanish-language neo-realist thriller set in Queens, New York, inspired by the real-world self-protection networks created by immigrant food-app delivery workers in response to bike theft, violence, traffic danger, and the threat of deportation.

For many riders, a stolen e-bike is not simply a loss of property. It can mean the loss of income, housing, remittances, and survival. The film enters that world through Pilar, a young Venezuelan delivery rider whose discipline, pride, and family obligations push her toward an impossible choice.

The project grows out of OSCAR®-nominated, EMMY®-winning filmmaker Francisco Bello’s documentary background, his relationships with delivery workers who participate in the self-protection networks depicted in the film, his lifelong relationship to Queens (where he was raised and still lives with his family), and his parents’ personal experiences as newly arrived immigrants to the U.S.

Crafted as a thriller, LA DELIVERISTA is ultimately a story about family, sacrifice, and the moment you realize you cannot carry everything alone.